2025 Pumpkin Drop: A Popular (and Messy) BU Tradition

There’s something about making a mess that appeals to the kid in all of us—and added to a science learning experience, who could resist? This much-anticipated October event (actually held on Halloween this year) always draws a crowd to the Metcalf Science Center. This year’s pumpkins, courtesy of the BU physics department, were stuffed with various substances, among them baked beans, flour, Coke, Mentos candies, peas and carrots, ketchup, mayonnaise, and vinegar, all in the name of science. A rotten pumpkin and a frozen pumpkin also bit the dust. Photo by Cydney Scott